Many people refrain from urinating when the conditions are not right. It has even become a sexual practice for some women. But waiting with a full bladder can lead to very serious complications.
Urinating is a natural cleansing process of the body that is not given much importance. Many people neglect the benefits and sometimes hold back until they can no longer hold out. Either because the timing is not right or because the toilet is not nearby. However, holding back more than 10 to 15 minutes to urinate is strongly discouraged. Beyond this time and if the process is repeated regularly, the consequences on health can be serious.
Refraining from urinating promotes bacteria stagnation
Refraining from urinating frequently and for a long time indeed causes stagnation of the urine and an accumulation of bacteria in the bladder which can be the cause of a urinary tract infection (also called cystitis). Very common in women – it is estimated that 2% to 3% of them have cystitis each year – this infection which spreads in the urinary tract causes a persistent urge to urinate, abdominal pain and terrible heartburn. time of urination. Because in addition to the water we consume, urine contains all the waste substances that the body no longer needs and that the kidneys have filtered (calcium oxalate, calcium phosphate, cystine, uric acid. ..).
More specifically, the bladder contains the fluids consumed, small residues, as well as acidic and ammonia substances. If this mixture is not evacuated regularly, it can damage the walls of the urinary tract, relax the muscles of the bladder and increase the risk of urinary retention – when you cannot pass urine despite the urge – which in the long term may require the insertion of a urinary catheter.
In 2015, Joshua Meeks, urologist at the Northwestern Medicine Center (United States), described the case of a soldier who had lost consciousness after having kept the equivalent of three bottles of wine in the bladder, in the magazine Men ‘s Health. “The organ was completely distended, he explained. The patient became unable to urinate normally, he had to plant a catheter three to six times a day in the penis.” In such a case, before placing a catheter, the volume of the bladder has already increased and is noticeable by a mass above the pubis.
Kidney stones, chills, pelvic pain
Refraining from urinating can also cause kidney stones to form. These small crystals (called “urolithiasis” in medical jargon) form in the kidneys, bladder or urethra. Their size is very variable and can range from a few millimeters to several centimeters in diameter. When they are small, stones can be eliminated by natural means and can sometimes lead to the presence of blood in the urine.
But when they are large and form in small ducts like the ureters, located between the kidneys and the bladder, they can easily obstruct the passage and cause very severe pain. This phenomenon is called renal colic. Renal colic is severe pain most often in the lumbar region on one side of the back, but sometimes in the stomach or groin area. The main complication of renal colic is superinfection of the urine and the kidney (pyelonephritis), due to stagnation of the urine and distension of the urinary tract upstream of the calculus, which leads to a generalized infection (sepsis). It is estimated that 5% to 10% of people have kidney stones during their lifetime and that half of them will have them again 10 years later as the lack of prevention is important. Overall, kidney stones are twice as common in men and often occur after 40 years.
Holding on to urine can also lead to vesicoureteric reflux, a fairly serious condition that occurs when urine, instead of being expelled, returns to the urethra and kidneys. As specified the French urology association, “the intervention then consists in reshaping the implantation of the ureter in the bladder by injecting an implant into the bladder wall. This modification restores an anti-reflux mechanism”. The patient can be treated with antibiotics to “limit the risk of urinary tract infection and therefore kidney infection. However, he does not treat the reflux itself”. Then there is the surgical treatment by “creation of an anti-reflux after opening the bladder and dissection of the end of one or both ureters”. Toxins and bacteria stored in the bladder can also cause sweating, chills, cramps, and pelvic pain.
The dangers of a new sexual practice
Refraining from urinating has also become a dangerous sexual practice known as “Peegasm”. It consists for women to refrain from urinating as long as possible, this would provide a Orgasm intense once the urge is relieved. A practice which would be based on the proximity of the clitoris, vagina and the excretory duct of the bladder, the urethra, and the stimulation of the clitoris and its branches when the neck of the bladder opens to let through this large amount of urine.
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